Movie ticket sales dropped 18.9 percent on the eastern seaboard because of Hurricane Irene, according to Oregon-based Rentrak Corp.
But at the same time, the number of DVDs and Blu-ray discs rented in the coastal states north of Virginia increased at rates ranging from 30 percent to as high as 300 percent. On-Demand movie rentals via cable and other television services also spiked 10 percent during the hurricane.
When the weather cleared up Monday, rentals dropped 20 to 40 percent.
